Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go
By Kazuo Ishiguro
Featured on the Time Magazine's Top 100
      I read this book with one of my classes not long ago, and on the test, I wrote a short answer question that was essentially a game of Taboo. I asked them to describe what the book was about without using certain words. That list included a series of words that would ruin the book for potential readers. My goal was for the students to write about subtext, and I hoped that the question would force them to think about issues in the book abstractly. With the stated goal of keeping spoilers to a minimum, I will try to use abstract as a watchword. This is a science fiction novel where, like in all good science fiction, a morality play is given to us, and we as readers are forced to see a universal truth that transcends the fictional storyline. If you are not a fan of science fiction, don't worry too much. The sci-fi elements to this book are very light and non-intrusive. You will not be forced to deal with any aliens, contemplate the nature of space/time, or anything like that.
       The novel opens with the narrator, Kathy, looking back on her time with her two close childhood friends, Ruth and Tommy. We know at the beginning of the novel that both Ruth and Tommy are dead, and that the deaths were fairly recent. The plot of the novel, essentially, is Kathy looking back on her relationship with these friends, and how these relationships shape her understanding of her own life. (Note: Here is where a lesser blogger would start revealing huge plot points. Not I. I first heard of this book at a seminar where an instructor suggested this book for AP reading lists. He then proceeded to give the whole thing away. I can't close Pandora's box for myself, but I'm sure I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if some of the emotional punches hadn't been pulled since I knew what was coming. ) But Kathy is what literature nerds like to call an unreliable narrator. While she doesn't lie, persay, she dances around the truth, or at least the emotional center of her stories. As a reader we have to piece together the nature of her life and career, and where she is now. Kathy is an expert at denial, and she is able to channel the stress and fear and anger that her situation should cause and direct these emotions towards her friends.  But when the novel ends, we as readers, know the truth. Kathy knows it too, but won't admit it to herself, which adds another layer to the tragedy.
           Ishiguro is very good at writing narrators like this. His novel Remains of the Day features a narrator, Stephens the Butler, who seems to be fully aware of himself for only about four sentences of the novel. It should be noted that those four sentences are among the most moving I have ever encountered. This is Ishiguro's great trick. He has a first person narrator describe a world to a reader who quickly understands it far better than the narrator. When that narrator figures out what has happened, we know that it is too late.
          There is a film version of Never Let Me Go that came out in 2010. It was directed by music video auteur Mark Romanek (whose only other film credit that I know of is the odd Psycho retread One Hour Photo which had the gimmick of casting Robin Williams against type) and features Keira Knightly as Ruth. I have not seen it, but I remember it came out to relative indifference. I am curious to see it, but I guess not curious enough to actually see it, since, well, it's been out awhile and goes unwatched. A few of my students saw it, and one said it was good, and another said it was terrible. So I guess it could go either way.
          But the quality of the movie not withstanding, this is a terrific book.

Coming Soon: